[LEAPSECS] Do lawyers care (know) about leap seconds?

[Rob Seaman]

On Sep 30, 2014, at 3:46 PM, Warner Losh <imp at bsdimp.com> wrote:

> But the basic point still remains: If you have to sugar coat the actual standard
> with a fake standard to paper-over people’s inability to deal with the actual
> standard, this suggests that you have the wrong actual standard.

No, the basic point is about sugar coating physical reality with a fake reality.

Atomic time and mean solar time are two different things.  Diurnal cadences are governed by the synodic day.  Countdown timers by the SI-second (or rather, by a frequency standard).  Various options have been suggested over the many many years of this discussion.  Only one non-physical non-option has ever been considered by the ITU.  It is the ITU who are being tedious.

Rob Seaman
National Optical Astronomy Observatory